One thing you don’t want to start suffering from when you’re a hostage is Stockholm syndrome.

The term was created by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot to describe the sympathetic attitudes of bank employees to those holding them hostage in a failed bank raid in Stockholm, Sweden. The six-day ordeal ended on 28 August 1973. It’s infamous not just because the hostages resisted rescue but because, when they were released, they publicly defended their captors.

In the severe stress of a kidnap situation, little acts of kindness by captors can be magnified out of all proportion and cause this illogical behaviour. Stockholm syndrome is said to explain why kidnapped heiress Patti Hearst identified so strongly with her kidnappers that she went on to rob a bank with them.

Interestingly, modern kidnappers are aware of the rapport that can build up between the captive and the captor. Their concern, however, is that a regular guard will start to sympathise with the hostage. To avoid this, guards will often be rotated so that no connections can be made.